Levels increase in ground water and streamflow during April Substantially above-normal precipitation in April resulted in generally high ground-water levels and full reservoirs in the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. region, according to hydrologists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Baltimore, Maryland. Ground-water levels at the end of April increased throughout most of the area and are in either the normal or above-normal range throughout the entire bistate area. Monthly updates of ground-water conditions for 32 key observation wells located throughout Maryland and Delaware may be found at http://md.water.usgs.gov/groundwater/. Water storage in the Baltimore reservoir system increased by 20 billion gallons since the end of January to 80.7 billion gallons near the end of April, which is 100 percent of average and 12 percent above last year at this time.

The average streamflow into the Chesapeake Bay during April 200 was 96.3 billion gallons per day, which is 3 percent above the long-term average for April. In western Maryland and on the upper Potomac River, streamflow decreased but continued to remain in the normal range for the month of April. Streamflows on the Eastern Shore in April were generally lower than those measured in March, but were, nevertheless, above normal for this time of year. Throughout the rest of the bistate area, increased streamflow in local streams resulted in flows in the normal to above–normal range for April. Streamflow at the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., for April averaged 10.7 billion gallons per day, which is about 103 percent of normal for April.

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